Why America (1970)

This film about America between the wars (1917-1939) attempts to capture and interpret the vital moving forces in American society that caused the United States to emerge by the end of World War II as a dominant world power. Although the film stresses violence and the zanier side of American culture, director Frédéric Rossif believes these aspects help to explain the inner thrust that put the U.S. where they are. Rossif obtained about thirty thousand feet of motion picture footage from the audiovisual holdings of the National Archives relating to such objects as the Bonus Marches of the 1930's, rural poverty, Negroes, city life, assembly lines and other industrial processes, and social life including music and dancing.